Author Archives: Martin WW

You wait ages for a blog to come along… Just a reminder that we try and enter records of things seen on The Cluster (or indeed anywhere else) on https://www.inaturalist.org/home Its a simple to use app which has a feature where it attempts to identify what you’ve photographed. Anything that is recorded on The ClusterContinue reading “Buses”

“A woman’s dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.” ~ Sophia Loren Saturday found a group of volunteers assembled on The Cluster in cloudy but warm conditions to bang things and pull out things. The ‘banging’ involved making sure that some of the trees we planted earlier inContinue reading “Would Sophia Loren approve?”

Last Thursday saw a team of volunteers from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust get their feet wet in search of our native White-clawed crayfish. Some old faces re-appeared from last year’s day surveying with the Wild Trout Trust as well as some newbies to The Cluster. The lower the river the better when searching for crayfishContinue reading “In Search of Ronnie and Reggies*”

Many many years ago, before Covid even thought about humans, even before the Arkle beck threw its toys over its banks in spectacular fashion, a couple of folk had an idea to renature their bits of Arkengarthdale. “Let’s do some habitat restoration”… “Lets plant some trees”…Let’s…” (well you get the idea) and so The ClusterContinue reading “And we’re OFF…”

“Night, her sable dome scattered with diamonds” I arose from my Couch of Death just before seven. A good nights’ sleep. The oystercatchers were as noisy as usual come chucking out time but there was little else to trouble my fleeing consciousness.  There was a hungry wind as dawn broke, but by the time IContinue reading “Night the Second”

It’s ten-o-clock on a cool Sunday evening on The Cluster. It’s darkening dusk and I’m sat in front of a fire made from debris washed up in floods on which we cooked our supper (cooked as in reheated tbh, but that doesn’t sound so romantic and since that’s the ‘vibe’ I’m after, it will haveContinue reading “Night the First*”

Apologies (not) for the punny title but it feels sadly apt. A week or so ago I saw an ’orangey’ butterfly flitting around but I lost it before I could positively identify it. I eventually found it (or one similar) in the same area yesterday. I was pleased to get a positive identification and aContinue reading “Going to the Wall?”

Those of you who are subscribed to the blog get an email with any new blog post. However, that is a copy of the original post (mistakes included). Unfortunately the link to the ancient tree inventory was incorrect. The link has been corrected on our blog, but will still be incorrect in your original notificationContinue reading “Trees please…update.”

First up is an update on our wild boar. No further evidence, but I imagine there may be further sightings (or similar) on the first day of April next year! So what has been happening in the mean time? Well not a lot on the ground sadly. The contract for our big planting has beenContinue reading “Trees Please…(old ones especially)”